Saturday, November 14, 2009

Low Key Day

November 14, 2009

Today has been a fantastic day, we relaxed this morning and didn’t go to the gym until 9! Got a fantastic workout in with 30 minutes of cardio and some hard core legs. Squats, walking lunges, hamstring curls, leg extension, and calf raises. I will be sore tomorrow ;) We came home and super cleaned the house, I was even dusting baseboards! We vacuumed, dusted, cleaned bathrooms, changed sheets, gave Clifford a bath (that was an adventure), read a bit of the Rio Guidebook so we can figure out what to do next week. We leave in one week! We had a snacking type of very late lunch with veggies, cheese, hummus and wine. Today was such a great day!

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I am parked on the couch with my glass of wine, a few magazines, we are just enjoying a low key day that doesn’t happen very often! Not sure what is on tap for tonight but I love that we had such a relaxing day.

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Bradstreet Craftshouse Restaurant

November 14, 2009

We were searching for somewhere new to go to dinner downtown last night, since Mike needed to pick up a new suit and Off 5th was having a fantastic sale. They had buy one get one free on select suits that were already significantly reduced. He got a pretty good deal on 2 suits! Too bad nothing really grabbed me from the womens section, although there was a BEAUTIFUL Gucci purse that is WAY WAY WAY out of my price range ;) After checking the MSP Magazines Restaurant Finder we decided on Bradstreet. Bradstreet is located in the Graves 601 Hotel and focuses on small plates to be shared and pre-prohibition cocktails. It has a very “hip” atmosphere, a decent sized bar and an intriguing menu. I had to use the flash for some of these since the restaurant is very dark!

 

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For cocktails we each ordered one of the list, mine was vodka, sparking wine, Elderflower Liquor, Orange Flower Water, and Grapefruit. It was very tasty, but one was more than enough!Our waiter told us stories about each of the drinks, it was a nice touch and I love hearing about the history.

 

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To start dinner out we had marcona almonds with smoked paprika, I ate these too fast to even take a picture! I LOVE marcona almonds, I wish they weren’t so expensive. For our next plate we got  the Toast Plate with Tomato- Parmesan, Caper-Chevre, Feta- Olive, Apple Cheddar. These were so tasty and a creative way to try a few different flavors.

 

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Next was a Quesadilla with Duck Confit, Raclet Cheese, Apple Kimchi, I liked the flavors but the kimchi was a bit too hot for me. Mike enjoyed this one a lot.

 

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We had a half a roasted acorn squash with a cream and a blackstrap molasses and maple syrup reduction on the side, this was so sweet! I love squash prepared like this. Yum!

 

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Our final plate was Lamb Sliders with tatziki cucumbers, tomato and garlic aioli, 
shoestring fries, pickled onions and house ketchup.

 

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Overall we enjoyed our cocktails and dinner, our service was really good and I really like eating with small plates. We would go back for a happy hour and just a plate or two instead of a full dinner.

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